Latvia’s Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma resigned

Rupali Pruthi

Dec 8, 2015 12:00 IST

Latvia’s first female Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma announced her resignation on 7 December 2015.

Until a new government is chosen by the Latvia parliament, Straujuma will head the three-party coalition that includes centre-right Unity party, the Greens and Farmers party and the far-right National Alliance in a caretaker capacity.

Straujuma’s resignation came after she fired the transport minister in November 2015, sparking rumours of discontent within the centre-right Cabinet that took office in January 2014.

Straujuma took over as the PM of Latvia after winning 2014 General Elections when then Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis stepped down following the collapse of a supermarket that killed 54 people in the country.

BackgroundLatvia is a member of both NATO and the European Union. It has backed EU economic sanctions imposed on Moscow over its annexation of the Crimean peninsula and its support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

After taking over as Prime Minister in January 2015, Straujuma boosted defence spending and joined Baltic neighbours Estonia and Lithuania in pressing for a bigger NATO presence in the region.

However, the government that is a coalition between Straujuma’s Unity Party, the Nationalist Alliance and the Union of Greens and Farmers, came under fire in recent times over the 2016 budget and a deal to finance Air Baltic, the national airline.

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